The dark UV ovals were first detected by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope during the late 1990s at the north and south poles. During the Cassini spacecraft’s flyby of Jupiter in 2000, it also confirmed these ovals at Jupiter’s north pole, but the ovals did not get a lot of attention from scientists.

Scientists have discovered Earth-sized dark UV spots at Jupiter's poles, likely caused by magnetically driven vortices concentrating hydrocarbon haze. These transient features, visible in ultraviolet light,

Magnetic vortices twisting down from Jupiter's ionosphere into its deep atmosphere cause giant, ultraviolet-absorbing polar anticyclones, each the size of our Earth.

The Great Red Spot is not the only Earth-sized atmospheric disturbance seen on Jupiter. That dramatic storm remains number one for size and power in the Solar System, but ultraviolet (UV) observations from Hubble have now revealed that Earth-size ovals of haze are being stirred up over Jupiter's polar regions.

While Jupiter’s Great Red Spot has been a constant feature of the planet for centuries, University of California, Berkeley, astronomers have discovered equally large spots at the planet’s